Father and son Hossein and Amir Razavi took over the Middle East Market a decade ago, and recently expanded to open an adjacent restaurant serving classic Iranian and Persian dishes.
BERKELEYSIDE – November 13, 2025
Hossein Razavi, the 68-year-old co-owner of Middle East Cafe, graciously greets customers as they enter the restaurant on San Pablo Avenue near University Avenue. The cafe opened in July as an expansion of Middle East Market, which has been at the center of Razavi’s life for nearly a half-century.
“Razavi had been a regular customer at the market ever since he moved to Berkeley in 1976 from his hometown, Yazd, Iran, to attend San Jose State University. At that time, Middle East Market was the only place where Persian and Iranian immigrants could find familiar products from home, including teas, spices, sweets and rice, and it became a cultural and culinary hub for the Iranian community.
“I majored in civil engineering like every other Persian in the 70’s and 80’s,” he said, before turning more serious. “Then, in 1979, the revolution happened and my dad passed away, so I had to go back. I witnessed the revolution. I came back here in 1983 like a bird with broken wings and a broken heart.”
Unable to finish his education, he started driving taxi cabs to earn a steady living. He worked at Friendly Cab company for over 20 years, saved enough to buy the business and enjoyed connecting with people from all walks of life, until Uber took a big bite out of the taxi business. At a loss for a new direction, his wife, Madeline (a psychotherapist), wisely suggested he consider buying Middle East Market and turning it into “something special.” When he bought the market in 2015, he made his then-20-year-old son, Amir, co-owner with an eye to the future. He renovated the market’s interior, which needed extensive work, and set up a kitchen in the back.
“My father has always loved cooking for friends,” Amir said. “After soccer matches, he would host gatherings of 20 to 50 friends at home, cooking large meals simply for the joy of sharing food and community. While he was driving the cab, he often dreamed of opening his own restaurant where he could serve the traditional Persian dishes he loved — kebabs, stews, and aromatic rice dishes.”
Traditional Persian cuisine is richly flavored with herbs and spices. Its long-simmered stews, often featuring an interplay of sweet and sour, are served with tender, fluffy rice.
Many of the dishes on the cafe’s menu were originally served at their makeshift counter in the front of the market and received acclaim from customers. The tables in the front of the store were always packed, especially after they were featured on Check, Please, Bay Area, in May 2019. When COVID struck, the pair pivoted to take-out and catering. The Razavis, who always had their eye on the restaurant next door, the former El Patio, jumped at the chance to purchase it earlier this year and opened their restaurant in July, to share their dishes with a larger crowd in much roomier surroundings with a pleasant outdoor patio.
“The menu, which includes several vegetarian options, features standouts like koobideh, kabobs made with ground beef, lamb, grated onions and saffron, grilled on wide, flat metal skewers, ensuring a moist texture, served in a wrap of lavash bread or on a bed of tender rice. Fesenjan is an enticing blend of crushed walnuts, pomegranate molasses and saffron. At Middle East Cafe, the dish is slow cooked for four hours every morning, producing a tangy, slightly sweet and deeply satisfying sauce, delicious with chunks of tender chicken. Ghormeh sabzi, known as the national dish of Iran, is an earthy, deeply flavored stew, which incorporates seven different herbs, including fenugreek, chives and parsley, plus red kidney beans, dried limes, onion and garlic in an intensely flavored sauce.
Other choices feature falafel, lamb shank, and eggplant. Daily specials may add salmon or lamb chop kabobs; cooking on the grill ensures these meat dishes are moist and the portions are generous.
Among the side dish options are salad Shirazi, which is fresh and crunchy, with diced cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and mint in lemon juice, and olive oil; salad Oliveah, which is like a mixture of egg salad, potato salad and chicken salad, with Persian pickles, carrots and peas; taadig, the crunchy rice at the bottom of the pot, here made on pieces of golden lavash bread; and maast moosir, thick yogurt with shallots.
“Sprinkle it with sumac,” suggests Hossein, which is provided in numerous shakers around the restaurant. Sumac, counsels Hossein, has myriad health benefits.
Like a large papa bear, Hossein warmly welcomes customers, including those who have been coming since before he and Amir took over the market and now bring their kids and grandkids.
The pair acquired a liquor license when they took over the restaurant. In keeping with the focus on delights from the Middle East, their full bar offers Teliani’s line of Georgian wines, Sarbast beer from Uzbekistan, and Golden Arak Ramallah from the West Bank. Four cocktails deftly combine spirits with classic flavors: including the Pomegranate Ember, which pairs vodka and ginger liquor with pomegranate and lime juice, and the Persian margarita, which mixes tequila, hibiscus and agave, and a sumac-encrusted rim. Thematic mocktails featuring pomegranate juice or rose hip infusion are also available.
The backyard patio has been upgraded, with an overhead shade, added plants and a gurgling fountain. Plans are in the works for musical evenings on the patio with local jazz performers or world music artists. (Check their website for details).
For dessert, you can order a plate of assorted baklava or Turkish delights. But a trip next door to the Middle East Market will reveal a multi-colored kaleidoscope of these sweets to choose from, in flavors such as pistachio, mulberry, kiwi, blueberry, mango coconut, chocolate hazelnut, and rose petal with pomegranate.
While you are at the market, check out the dizzying array of foodstuffs from Iran, Turkey, Greece, Russia, and many other countries, including a dozen kinds of olive oil, jams from rose to carrot to quince, a wall of spices, a wide selection of dried fruits, nuts and seeds and an array of fresh breads. Their most popular bread, Sangak, is a 4-foot-long flatbread, sprinkled with sesame, poppy and flax seeds and baked on stones.
Situated near the intersection of University and San Pablo avenues in Berkeley’s most diverse district, father and son take their commitment to “community, cuisine and culture” (their motto) to heart. The Razavis carry products from 35 different countries and are happy to stock customers’ favorite foods.
“It’s been a long journey,” Hossein said, “but I’m very happy where I’m at.”
Middle East Market & Cafe
2054-56 San Pablo Ave. (near University Avenue), Berkeley; www.middleeastmarket.com
Open daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
By Anna Mindess
Anna Mindess is an award-winning freelance writer who lives in Berkeley. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, AFAR, Lonely Planet, Edible East Bay, KQED,… More by Anna Mindess
